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Entries from August 2012

For the past four years, I have been blogging daily. Somewhere, the ideas are becoming repetitive. So, I decided it is time to take a break. I will continue to write occasionally. Blogging has been something I have been doing for the past 12+ years. Perhaps, it is also time to think of a different [...]

I wrote this a year ago: Having travelled to both Bali and Binsar in July, I am convinced that there is a much untapped tourism opportunity within India. India gets about 18 million foreign tourists each year, according to Wikipedia. China gets three times as many. With better infrastructure and promotion, India’s numbers can easily [...]

This week’s links: No country for the young: by Manish Sabharwal in Indian Express. “India’s young care most about jobs. And a narrative that places job creation at the heart of policy synthesises the most important issues: roads, power, labour laws, land reform, education, skills and deregulation.” Economic slogan for 2014: by Gautam Chikermane in [...]

Just as the Rajdhani pulled out of the station, it came to a halt almost immediately. Apparently, someone had pulled a chain. There was much activity, and as one of the other engine drivers explained to me, this one is a very special train. It cannot be even a minute late – its performance is [...]

Abhishek likes trains, so during one of our recent bus-train rides, we decided to go to Mumbai Central station and watch the Rajdhani Express arrive from Delhi. It came in right on schedule at 8:35 am, after a 16-hour journey from Delhi, at an average speed of 86 kms/hour. Abhishek was thrilled – and so [...]

I had recently gone to pick someone up at Mumbai Airport’s Terminal 1A – the one that serves Air India and Kingfisher. It was like a ghost terminal — a complete contrast to what used to be once upon a time. It was almost like going back in time 15-20 years when there was just [...]

Banning bulk SMS seems to have become the natural reaction to any law-and-order issue. The government did it around the time of the Ayodhya verdict and did it again last week. Leave aside the fact that the fear spread was because of P2P SMS, rather than A2P SMS. The government had to be seen doing [...]

This year has been disappointing for most of India on the rain front. Its been the same in Mumbai. The delight of sitting on a Sunday and watching the rains come down heavy and hard through the window has been almost lost this year. Until yesterday for some part of the day. It suddenly felt [...]

I write this a year ago: I have experienced this so many times. A book that I am reading helps me think through a conundrum I have been contemplating and creates the space for coming up with interesting ideas and solutions. The book doesn’t even have to be directly linked to the topic – what [...]

This week’s links: 5 reasons why web publishing is changing (again): by Richard MacManus: “From Pinterest at the beginning of this year to the launch this week of a new product from two Twitter founders, Medium, 2012 has been a year where the norms of publishing are being challenged.” E-commerce startups: by Chris Dixon. “What [...]

An entrepreneur has to make decisions with incomplete information. Many times, an instinctive call has to be made. On many occasions this year, I have been called upon to make such calls – both in Netcore and in Niti. One is never quite sure when making the decision, but that doesn’t mean that a decision [...]

Between Netcore and Niti, it has been a very interesting journey. Like Paulo Coelho writes in his book, “The Alchemist”, once you start a journey, the world conspires to help you along. And that is exactly what has happened, especially in Niti. I have met some amazing people who have provided rich additions to the [...]

Niti (New Initiatives to Transform India) was the new addition in the past year. For the past few years, I have written often about many things we needed to do to transform India’s future. For the most part, it was just talk. Without putting in time and money and thus building a capacity to execute, [...]

In Netcore, the period from last September to December was marked by many changes – both internal and external. We had a few senior members of our management team quit, and we had new regulations from TRAI which saw a sharp drop in the SMS business overnight resulting in immediate losses. Those were tough months [...]

Every year for the past few years, in the week of my birthday, I have been reflecting back on the year that was and looking ahead to the year that is coming. It is, along with the New Year, one of two opportunities annually to take stock of one’s life and work. The past year [...]

From my musings on my last birthday: Today, I turn 44. And after 7 years, I am once again travelling internationally on my birthday. This trip is not as much about work as it is about thinking through how I am going to bring about the political and policy change in India that I have [...]

This week’s links: Ten million users is the new one million users: by Chris Dixon. “For consumer startups with non-transactional models (ad-based or unknown business models), you need something closer to 10 million users versus 1 million users to get Series A funded.” The $30 trillion emerging markets opportunity: from McKinsey. “By 2025, more than [...]

Airports are just one example of where the dysfunctions become much more than nuisances and irritants. They reflect a mindset that says “we don’t care” and “take it or leave it.” Surely, we can do better than that. Even as we need big ideas to speed up our growth, governance and development, we also need [...]

These may be seemingly minor irritants in a process designed to safeguard us. But, surely, we can learn from other countries. Surely, we can look at each process and determine if it is still relevant and useful. Someone has to be thinking about what can be done better. What we need to do is to [...]

Consider the process of stamping of boarding passes and baggage tags. All they do is create delays. There is no logic that is served other than employment and once again, the false sense of security. I have yet to come across another country which insists on doing this kind of stamping and then employing more [...]